Mbanza Kongo - Seventy families from the municipality of Mbanza Kongo, Zaire province, are taking part in a training session on new techniques for growing vegetables, as part of the Integrated Programme for Local Development and Combating Poverty.
Topics such as soil weeding, crop rotation, fertiliser dosage, the social importance of agriculture and the community box dominate the training being given by three technicians from the Institute for Agrarian Development (IDA).
The acting director of the Provincial Office of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries in Zaire, Mbueno Kilandamuko, said that the training programme would involve 350 peasant families from the municipalities of Zaire, with a view to providing them with more subsidies on vegetable production.
He pointed out that Zaire province depends heavily on vegetables from the country's capital, Luanda, a situation that he hopes to reverse in the coming agricultural seasons.
He said that in the first agricultural season (November to February), the municipality of Mbanza Kongo prepared 70 hectares of land where considerable quantities of tomatoes, cabbage, aubergines, onions, carrots and peppers were grown.
Without revealing the harvest obtained in the previous agricultural campaign, he said that in the second phase, which began in April and ends in July, 30 hectares were cultivated for the production of vegetables, with the involvement of 10 agricultural cooperatives.
The municipal administrator of Mbanza Kongo, Manuel Nsiansoki Gomes, said at the opening ceremony that the training is in line with the Executive's programmes to combat poverty.
The municipality of Mbanza Kongo has an estimated population of around 200,000 inhabitants, spread across the communes of Kalambata, Nkiende, Luvo, Madimba, Kaluka and Sede. DA/JL/DAN/DOJ
